r/PiCodingAgent

Hey there I have installed pi since I heard a lot about that bcz of its low token usage and minimal design but I installed some packages [7 packages] (MCP adapter, context7, plan mode, todo, pi-hypa, context-mode, ask user question since every harness has these Ig) then installed some skills. Now even a single hi takes about 6-7k+ tokens. I did a college java project and it burnt tokens a lot. It burnt me around 100k+ tokens on deepseek's v4 flash model to make a database connection, creating database and table and a simple student management system where you can add, remove, view students in java.

I wanted to make pi token efficient with best possible results. If you say that I have installed too many packages then tell me how to replicate those features like other harnesses with low token usage.

Can you recommend me a simple yet configurable subagent extension? I'm currently testing `pi-subagents` but i find it slow and bloated. What are you guys using?

I’ve been looking at Hermes Agent’s "/goal" approach: give the agent a persistent goal, let it continue across turns, have a lightweight judge decide whether it’s done, and stop when the goal is achieved or the turn budget is exhausted.

It got me thinking about Pi:

Could this be implemented as an extension rather than a core feature?

Something like:

"/loop 30m "Fix the tests and get CI green""

The extension would manage:

• a time/iteration budget
• continuation decisions
• completion checking
• pause/stop
• existing Pi session state

That feels quite aligned with Pi's philosophy: keep the core small, but make powerful agent behaviours possible through extensions.

Would a lightweight, time-bound autonomous loop be useful in Pi, or does this belong entirely outside the harness?

Hi, the ask is the title...

Hi folks,

I spent a ton of time making pi my own tailoring it for local llama.cpp server usage so much so, that I ran out of problems.

So my question for you folks is: do you rice / style your pi installations? If so, what's your favorite visual change?

Pictures much appreciated ☺️

One of my favorite features in Claude Code was /btw. After switching to Pi, it wasn't natively supported, and the third-community plugins didn't quite match what I expected, so I built my own.

https://github.com/L2ncE/pi-btw

https://preview.redd.it/r5n4tgud7akh1.png?width=2133&format=png&auto=webp&s=65ae998438a6d7eadb50281a98f0ae52f33621a1

• Never enters the main session history or eats into its context window
• The side agent can see the main session's messages and remembers your earlier side questions
• Only four read-only tools (read / grep / find / ls) — it can browse the code, but has no write access
• You can keep asking follow-ups right in the overlay

Stars appreciated ⭐️👏🏻

I have used Pi, Oh my Pi, Opencode, Antigravity, and Claude, but Pi is so so good.

It is simple, smart, keeps its thinking grounded, hallucinates less, is extremely good at following instructions and is aware of the environment.

By awareness, I mean it knows what needs to be edited or changed.

https://daugasauron.github.io/piodide/

https://github.com/daugasauron/piodide

I just had this idea that you could just replace the bash tool in pi with python that runs on WASM, then you could run the whole thing in the browser.

Tried it and it's quite fascinating how good it is as a concept.

Everything is complete slop.

I tried GLM (code), OpenAI and moonshot providers.

Is anyone using this setup and what has your rate limit been like for software development?

openai hyped up their GPT 5.6 luna having longer usage, is this true using Pi?

I was using Pi + DeepSeek v4 flash API plan, then decided to switch to openAI API plan and got rate limited after a few seconds.

So wondering if the same happens if you use Pi with one of their sub plans?

Pi's coding-agent extensions are TypeScript modules with an in-process API:

registerTool, registerCommand, lifecycle hooks, and some TUI UI, then

hot-reload. Same language as the host.

If the host is Go (single binary), how would you get close to that?

Options I'm weighing: embed Lua/Starlark/JS, Wasm plugins, a sidecar

extension host over RPC, or accept that hooks+MCP is the ceiling.

If you've built plugin systems for Go CLIs/agents/editors: what would you

actually ship, and what would you refuse to build?

Has anyone compared how the new Deepseek harness is compared to your working setup with Pi?

I love Pi, period.

Problem: after the recent DS pricing changes and fall of opencode -> i have to sub GPT plus -> sooner or later, im afraid that OpenAI will follow Anthropic to block other than Codex for sub plans.

This left the title question: Does opensource harness like Pi safe for the future? Enjoying sub plan with more generous tokens from providers, or we have to rely on local llms? or we have to accept higher API pay-as-you-go pricing?

thanks!

Does anyone know of a plugin or solution to monitor pi sessions from your phone?

npm packages

 - pi-lean-ctx — star of show. context economy: 13-token re-reads, indexed search. big win.

 - u/ff-labs/pi-fff — frecency search complements lean-ctx. fast first lookups.

 - pi-caveman — ~75% output cut. fun + real savings.

 - pi-subagents — workhorse. single + scripted multi-agent. backbone.

 - u/juicesharp/rpiv-web-tools — solid web layer. still need /web-tools key setup.

 - u/juanbenjumea/pi-dynamic-footer — live observability (TPS, context gauge, cost). better than powerline for metrics.

 - u/almegal/pi-file-browser — visual browse beats ls for structure.

 - u/narumitw/pi-goal — single-objective autonomy. pairs with subagents.

 - pi-autoresearch — experiment loop. pairs with karpathy skill well.

 - pi-session-recall — memory across sessions. low risk, read-only.

 - u/micka33/pi-karpathy-skill — always-on behavioral guardrails. cheap insurance.

 local extensions

 - handoff.ts — best one. lossless session handoff beats compaction.

 - plan-mode — read-only analysis mode. real safety value.

 - notify.ts — done-notification. practical.

 - summarize.ts — markdown summarize. handy.

 - model-status.ts — demo-grade. dynamic footer now shows model anyway. candidate to delete.

 - todo.ts — demo todo tool. likely redundant w/ built-in todo. candidate to delete.

 - snake.ts / space-invaders.ts — toys. zero cost. keep for joy.